


A game for three

by errantknightess



Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Developing Friendships, Humor, Karuta, M/M, School Clubs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-06 06:47:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14636298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/errantknightess/pseuds/errantknightess
Summary: Searching for his place at the new school, Allen joins a struggling karuta club – and soon finds there’s much more for him to learn than just the cards and the game rules.





	A game for three

Allen roamed helplessly through the corridors, searching for anything at all to set him on the right track. His lousy sense of direction had thwarted him again. This school was huge, and the two weeks since he transferred hadn’t been nearly enough time to get used to it yet. How ironic, to get lost on his way to see the student advisor. Maybe he should ask him to draw him a map when he finally gets there; that’s one way he could definitely help him _assimilate_.

He wasn’t too sure which room Komui-sensei said he would be in. He wasn’t even sure he would be there at all. It was pretty late already, and the entire wing seemed dead. Allen strode briskly along the hall, peeking into each and every classroom he passed. All empty, not a soul in sight.

As he rounded the corner, the silence broke, punctured suddenly with a distant thumping sound. Intrigued, Allen decided to follow it;  so far, it was the only sign of anyone’s presence. The thumping continued, growing louder the further he went along the corridor. Soon, Allen started to make out other sounds, faint voices and some sort of – _singing?_ It was coming from the last door just next to the staircase, pretty clear now that he stood right in front of it. Puzzled, Allen slid the door open a crack and looked in.

Something whizzed past his head at a dangerous speed and smacked loudly against the window behind him.

“Sorry!” a voice inside the room called. “Can you get that?”

Allen turned around and picked up the deadly projectile. It was a card – fairly big and springy, with a few columns of hiragana printed in a simple font. He turned it in his fingers with interest, so preoccupied that he nearly tripped as he stepped into the classroom. Grasping at the doorframe, he steadied himself quickly and tried not to look too embarrassed under the taxing gaze of the two students watching him from the tatami mat set out on the floor.

“Thanks.” One of them, a guy with an eyepatch and red hair of a delinquent, reached out his hand with a smile. Allen gave him the card and watched that smile grow even wider as he inspected it.

“See, Yuu, I told you! You got it wrong! This is _The spring has passed_ , not _If I lay my head_. That’s another penalty for you! You’re careless today.”

“Whatever,” the other one snorted, his long dark hair flying as he snapped his head around to glare at Allen. “Hey, you! Be useful and get that one as well.” He pointed at another card laying under a desk by the door, seemingly thrown there with the same force.

“Yuu!” the redhead hissed with a slight panic. “You can’t order people around like that!”

“Then what the hell am I the captain for?” Yuu rolled his eyes and once again fixed them expectantly on Allen. The redhead cringed.

“He’s not even in the club!”

“It’s fine,” Allen minced out politely and bent under the desk to retrieve the card. It looked similar to the first one, but with a different set of lines.

“ _What withers and falls away in this place is I myself_ ,” he read out loud, his eyebrows rising higher with every word. He looked up from the card, shifting his eyes between them, from the red hair and piercings to the murderous scowl. “… Are you a poetry club?”

“Something like that,” the redhead laughed and leaned towards him, eye glinting with curiosity. “Hey, you’re that transfer student, right? From England? Have you ever heard about karuta?”

“A little bit,” Allen admitted, glancing at the tiles spread out between the two of them. “It’s a card game, isn’t it?”

“It’s a _sport_ ,” Yuu growled with emphasis. “For fuck’s sake, we’re a _sport club_.”

The redhead laughed nervously.

“I know, Yuu, I know.” He turned to Allen again, his smile apologetic. “He’s right, it’s a sport, in the same way go and shogi are, I guess. You can play for fun, too, but it takes some skill to do it at a competitive level. The rules are pretty simple, though! After all, even kids play it, you know. Once you memorize those hundred cards, it’s a breeze. In the end, it all boils down to how quickly you can match the poem being read with the correct ending – not that hard, eh? By the way, we haven’t introduced ourselves yet! You’re a first year, so you go first. What’s your name?”

“Uhh… Allen. Allen Walker,” Allen said, his head reeling a little from this rapid speech.

“Nice to meet you!” The redhead grabbed his hand and shook it with joint-twisting enthusiasm, plucking the card from his fingers while he was at it. “I’m Lavi Bookman, and this grumpy prettyboy here is Kanda Yuu, our esteemed club captain.”

“Shut up, moron.” Kanda turned away, glaring at them with the corner of his eye. “We both know _you_ should be the damn captain.”

“And we both know _you_ need it more, Mr. I-Have-No-Social-Skills-To-Speak-Of-In-My-College-Application.”

“College?” Allen looked at them with surprise. “So you’re third years?”

“He is.” Lavi pointed his thumb at Kanda and lowered his voice to a conspiratory whisper. “I _should_ be. Got held back a grade cause I was travelling abroad last year. Don’t tell anyone.”

“ _Everyone knows_ ,” Kanda growled. “Now stop clowning around and get back to the game already.”

“Aye, aye, captain!” Lavi saluted and scooted back to his spot, but his eye was still fixed on Allen. “Hey, just a thought. How good are you with reading?”

“I _can_ read, thank you very much,” Allen replied, offended. “I wouldn’t be going to school here if I were illiterate.”

“Relax. I meant loud reading,” Lavi chuckled, waving his hand towards the clunky CD player at his side. “I’m sick of the recordings. Let’s see how _you_ ’ll do with these.” He reached over to a nearby box and procured another deck, which he promptly thrust into Allen’s hands.

“What do I do with them?” Allen shuffled through the cards, taking in the colourful pictures and the crisp lines of kana.

“Just read the poems out loud, slowly and clearly. You can stop when either of us takes a card, just finish the line so we know which one it is.” Lavi cracked his knuckles and turned to Kanda with a wide grin. “Come on, Yuu! Let’s show the kid how it’s done!”

Allen cleared his throat and started reading, his voice wobbling uncomfortably. He didn’t even get through the first line when Lavi and Kanda both slammed their hands on the mat and sent the cards flying across the floor.

“It’s mine.” Kanda got up and went to pick up the card that landed the furthest, casting Allen a patronizing look as he passed by. “Speak up, Beansprout, we can barely hear you.”

Allen looked back at him with annoyance and deliberately raised his voice a little too much with the next card. Once again, though, he was cut off by the both of them pounding on the mat just three syllables in.

“Nice one.” Lavi smiled as Kanda took the card off his field and put it to the side. “Your guard is sharp as always, I see.”

“You could put up yours more, too,” Kanda grumbled. “Don’t let me leave you behind, idiot. I know you can do better than this. Stop being lazy!”

“All right, all right,” Lavi laughed, poking at Kanda’s hand as he straightened his cards. “I’ll take the next one, if you insist.”

Allen watched them over his cards, only partly paying attention to what he was reading. There was something mesmerizing in them, in this air of fierce focus shooting sparks between them as they moved, bent low over the mat, faces hovering just inches apart. He barely had any work to do there at all, it went so fast. Their hands cut through his words with the speed and grace of a tiger, taking the cards out one by one until just three remained, all in front of Lavi.

“Thank you for the game.” Kanda bowed deeply, his long hair obscuring his face as he touched his forehead to the mat. Lavi followed suit, though it seemed more like he just banged his head on the floor in frustration.

“I can’t believe you beat me again! Three times in a row! Man, this isn’t my day.”

“It’s never your day,” Kanda shot back, tapping his cards flush into a neat pile.

“You’re just too good.” Lavi sat up with a sigh and turned to Allen, his sour face lighting up immediately. “Nice job on the reading, by the way! Not bad for a beginner at all, I’m surprised. You should work on keeping the rhythm though, your intonation was all over the place. But you have a pleasant voice, even if it cracks a lot, and you breathe with your belly, that’s good.”

“Uhh… Thanks,” Allen said slowly, not sure if he should be more flattered or embarrassed.

“See, this is why _you_ should be the fucking captain.” Kanda measured Lavi with a long glance, waving his hand in frustration. “I can’t do any of this… people shit.”

“Aww, don’t sell yourself so short, Yuu! You’re great at other things!” Lavi wrapped his arms around him in a tight hug, rubbing his cheek on top of Kanda’s head. “You’ve got this awesome, intimidating presence, you know! And a strong sense of leadership! And a proper Japanese name, let’s not forget about that. You’re perfect for the job! If I was the captain, no one would ever take us seriously at the tournaments!”

“We don’t _go_ to any tournaments.” Kanda rolled his eyes and swatted half-heartedly at Lavi’s bicep to shake him off. “We can barely keep it up _here_. You heard what the principal said. Find more people, or we’re out.”

“But now Allen is here, so we’re good, right?” Lavi let go of him, only to throw his arm around Allen’s shoulders instead. “You’re not in any clubs yet, are you? Help us out and join here, how about that?”

“And what will I have out of it?” Allen freed himself from the embrace and looked at them both with a frown.

“Participation points?” Lavi shrugged. “It will look good in your papers. Plus, you’ll get to hang out with two coolest guys in this school,” he added cheerfully, leaning into Kanda once again.

“I don’t know…” Allen scratched the back of his neck, hesitantly eyeing the discarded cards between them. Sure, it looked fun, but could _he_ do that? And was it okay for him to burden his two senpais with his lack of experience? Club activities were for people to have a good time with their friends. The last thing he wanted was to get in the way.

“I’m not really sure this is my thing. Sorry. I need to go.” With a twitching smile, Allen heaved himself up, brushed his pants off and reached for his bag.

“Of course,” Kanda scoffed with a nasty smirk, not even looking at him. “Didn’t expect anything else. At least it’s good that you know when you’re too weak to handle something, Beansprout.”

“Weak?” Allen turned to him in a blink, gritting his teeth. True, he had a similar thought just a moment before – but he couldn’t stand hearing it in _this_ tone, from _this_ guy. “What does weakness have to do with this? It’s a memory game!”

“That just proves how little you know.” Kanda crossed his arms, finally meeting him with a burning gaze. “I’ve told you, it’s not a game. It’s a _sport_. You need training and technique. Reflex. Stamina. Precision. And clearly, you don’t have any of these.”

“Oh, you think so?” Allen took a step forward and dropped his bag back on the floor, fists clenching. “Challenge accepted. Bring it on, I can show you just how much I’ve got.”

“It’s pointless,” Kanda scoffed. “Waste of time. You don’t even know the poems.”

Allen held his glare, his stomach twisting. Too late to back out now.

“It’s the _One Hundred Poets_ , right? That classical anthology. We’ve discussed them in the literature class recently. I’ll give it a shot.”

“Oi, Allen!” Lavi piped in, his eye wide and shooting between the two of them. “Are you sure you know what you’re getting yourself into? Yuu is a B class player. He’ll run you into the ground!”

“We’ll see about that.” Allen narrowed his eyes, still piercing Kanda with a furious look. Somewhere deep down, he realized he was on a straight course to disaster, but right then, he didn’t care. If he had to make a fool of himself, he’d rather do it trying than giving up.

“All right, then. Here’s a quick rundown of the rules for you, sprout.” Lavi scooted over to make room for him on the mat. “You get twenty five cards each. The first one to clear all of his is the winner. With me so far?”

Allen nodded, watching him shuffle the deck, cut it in half and in half again.

“Great.” Lavi pushed the two stacks towards them. “Here are your cards. Now, you put them in front of you and memorize the positions. Remember to pay attention to your opponent’s side as well, you’ll be taking his cards too.”

“Like hell he will,” Kanda snorted. “I’ll be damned if he can take even one in the whole match.”

“He might get lucky.” Lavi shrugged with a smirk. “You know sometimes it’s just guesswork and gamble as much as skills.”

_Gamble_. Allen lit up a bit, hopeful. That, he could do.

He placed his part of the deck in three rows in front of him, mirroring Kanda. The cards felt weird in is hands, thick and heavy and unfamiliar; still, he caught a glimpse of a few verses that rang a bell faintly – or so he thought. Allen glared at them with determination, doing his best to remember their positions and ignore the seething presence in front of him.

“Are you ready?” Lavi looked between them, impatiently fiddling with the reading deck at his side.

“Yes,” they replied in unison. Allen wiped his hands on his pants, anticipation tingling like steel needles on his dry tongue. Across from him, Kanda took a deep breath, his eyebrows knit together as he eyed the cards in front of him.

With a sigh, Lavi took the first card from his pile and brought it slowly to his eye. Allen barely managed to register the first word he read when Kanda already slapped a card out of his field with a force that sent it spinning to the other end of the room. Lavi leaned away just in time, clicking his tongue with reproach.

“Careful, Yuu! Wanna knock my other eye out?”

“Is _that_ what happened to you?” Allen blurted before he could stop himself. Lavi just laughed, following Kanda with a fond gaze as he stood up to pick up the card.

“Nah, but I like telling people that just to mess with them. It’s fun to watch them get all shocked when they learn we’re actually best friends.”

“I can see that,” Allen muttered, just before Kanda returned to his place to hear it.

It went on much like he had seen in the match before. Kanda took the next card too, and the next two after that, lunging on them before Allen could even make a move. It got his blood boiling, his heart pumping faster, raising the pressure until he felt ready to burst. The frustration coursing in his veins made his head light, but his limbs felt lighter too – weightless. Matching Kanda’s swift movements, Allen started throwing himself at the cards with a newfound aggression. He was going in blindly, but it didn’t matter, just as long as he could be quicker than his opponent – just to get the card he was aiming at, just to swipe it right from under his fingers. His hand knocked into Kanda’s more times than he cared to count, always just a second too slow. Lavi’s voice, strong and oddly melodious, rose over the battlefield, a sharp contrast to their violent thuds and cries. Another card, and another – and then Allen finally got this chance. This one, he knew – he had read that line out himself not long ago.

He remembered.

And in a blink, he slammed his hand against the mat so hard it reverberated in his bones, hitting the card right in front of him and sweeping a couple others out along with it.

“Whoa, Allen!” Lavi cut himself off, staring at him with a proud grin. “Your first card! Congrats, man! It feels good, doesn’t it?”

Allen let out a heavy breath and squeezed the card tight in his fingers.

“Yeah,” he admitted. “It does.”

It was not the turning point he was hoping for, though. This one small victory set him on fire, but it was merely a flickering flame compared to the roaring inferno he was faced with. A few more strikes, fast and forceful, and soon enough Kanda was giving him the obligatory bow of the winner, bent over his empty field with a neat stack of cards to his right.

“Don’t worry.” Lavi gave Allen a consoling pat on the shoulder. “You stood no chance against Yuu on your first try. Even I hardly ever get to win against him, and I’ve been playing for over ten years.”

“Wow, really?” Allen blinked at him in amazement and turned to Kanda, his frustration slowly dissipating into grudging respect. “Have you been playing that long, too?”

“More or less.” Kanda shrugged, looking right over his head at Lavi. “So, what do you think?”

“A little rough on the edges, that’s for sure.” Lavi tapped his chin with his finger, shuffling on the floor around Allen to look at him from all sides. “But you’re quick, and looks like you have a pretty good memory. You’d only seen those poems  in lit class and when you were reading out loud for us earlier, right?”

“Right.” Allen nodded, fidgeting under their insistent stares. “I guess a few of them stuck.”

“That’s great.” Lavi beamed, turning to Kanda with a shine in his eye. “Maybe he doesn’t know much yet, but he makes up for it with a hell of a fighting spirit. Some practice, and who knows what will come out of it!”

“Don’t get too ahead of yourself.” Kanda flicked him lightly in the forehead before piercing Allen with a steel gaze again. “All right, so maybe you’re not as completely useless as you seem. And hell, we can’t be picky right now, anyway. You sure you don’t want to join?”

Allen hesitated. He thought back to the thrill of the game, the tension coiling up in him, the adrenaline-driven focus that sharpened his senses; and most of all, to the warm wave of satisfaction flooding his chest as he gripped the card taken right from under his opponent’s nose.

It was fun.

“I think I can try,” he decided, looking up at them with a small smile. “If you will have me.”

“Woohoo!” Lavi yelled and grabbed both him and Kanda by the shoulders, pulling them in a painful, awkward group hug. “Welcome to the team! Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of you”

“ _You_ take care of him,” Kanda growled. “I’m not babysitting a complete newbie.”

“But Yuu! Isn’t that your responsibility? You’re the captain!”

“Yeah, and as your captain, I’m telling you to do that.”

“That’s mean.” Lavi pouted, poking Kanda in the cheek with his finger. “I’ll train him to kick your ass for this, is that what you want?”

“I’m counting on you.” Kanda gave him a punch in the arm, probably a light one by his standards, but it still made Lavi wince.

Allen watched them struggle for a moment, sinking back into the silence of the empty room. It was new to him – people wanting him to join them, to be a part of a _team_. Was there really something he could help them with? Even if they just took him because they needed members, it would be wrong not to give it his best. He still wasn’t sure if it was really a good idea – but somewhere inside him, the spark had already been lit, and now it was glowing faintly in his chest, warm and pleasant.


End file.
